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Objective

The FluMaBack (Fluid Management component improvement for Back up fuel cell systems) project aims at improving the performance, life time and cost of balance of plant (BOP) components of back up fuel cell systems specifically developed to face back-out periods of around 1,000h/year for specific markets: USA, Africa and North Europe where hard operative conditions are present (high and low temperatures). The improvement of system components addressed in this project will benefit both back-up and CHP applications.The project focuses on new design and improvement of BOP components for utilization in PEMFC based stationary power applications, aimed at:- improving BOP components performance, in terms of reliability;- improving the lifetime of BOP component both at component and at a system level;- reducing cost in a mass production perspective;- simplifying the manufacturing/assembly process of the entire fuel cell system.While in recent years the performance and durability of the PEMFC have increased and the cost has decreased at the same time, performance, durability and costs of BOP components have basically stayed the same. So, for improvements on performance, durability and cost of the fuel cell system, R&D dedicated on BOP components have become essential. The project is focussed on the most critical BOP components with the largest potential for performance improvement and cost reductions:- Air and fluid flow equipments, including subcomponents and more specifically blower and recirculation pumps- Humidifier- Heat exchangerSpecific targets in terms of efficiency, lifetime and cost have been pointed out for each BOP component to be developed.The project will have a duration of 3 years to guarantee the achievement of all project targets.The consortium consists of large and small entities which are R&D centres, BoP components developers and manufacturers, fuel cells stack and fuel cell system developers and manufacturers. Partners are located throughout the EU: Italy, Spain, The Netherland and Slovenia.

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New improvements back up fuel cell operation

While fuel cells continue to improve in performance over time, durability and performance of auxiliary equipment that help ensure reliable operation have not followed the same trend. Improvements in balance-of-plant (BoP) equipment could someday ensure that fuel cell power systems will be the answer in blackout-hit regions in Africa, the EU and the United States.

Backup fuel cell systems provide power during outages. This is quite a challenge, especially for BoP components of these systems. These components must be reliable under tough operating conditions such as extreme temperatures, humidity and dust for blackout periods of around 1 000 hours a year.
Current BoP components are not specifically developed for fuel cell systems, thereby reducing reliability of the entire fuel cell system in case of a blackout.
Technological improvements in BoP components within the scope of the EU-funded project FLUMABACK (Fluid management component improvement for back up fuel cell systems) should enable significant enhancements in performance of the components as well as the entire system.
The team focused on optimising performance of the air blower, hydrogen recirculation blower, humidifier and heat exchanger with regard to the stack requirements. All components were optimised to achieve operating time of 10 000 hours without any need for additional maintenance. However, fine-tuning of all system components is necessary to ensure optimal operation of the entire fuel cell system.
Two different systems were developed with rated output of 3 and 6 kW, and the same BoP components could operate in both systems. Project members conducted numerous tests on these systems using prototypes of the newly developed BoP components. The main requirements and benchmarks were met for both fuel cell systems, showing that component integration was successful. Increased efficiency and reduced costs are the main advantages of the new fuel cells.
Experimental testing of the systems provided data for developing a numerical model of the components and the entire fuel cell system. This model offers the possibility to test the system under specific conditions and various operating regimes.
With improvements in the design and operation of BoP components in backup fuel cell systems, FLUMABACK helps overcome reliability issues that have been holding back market uptake of fuel cells. Except for backup fuel cell systems for power applications, component improvements also target fuel cell electric vehicles and small-scale generation of heat and electric power.

Executive Summary:The FluMaBack (Fluid Management component improvement for Back up fuel cell systems) project aims at improving the performance, lifetime and cost of balance of plant (BOP) components of back up fuel cell systems specifically developed for countries where long blackouts occur (1000 hours/year). Due to this long time operation requirement the improvement of system components addressed in this project will benefit both back-up and CHP applications. The project focuses on new design and improvement of BOP with the largest potential for performance improvement and cost reductions: air blower, hydrogen recirculation pump, humidifier and heat exchanger. Specific targets in terms of efficiency and cost have been pointed out for each BOP component to be developed in the project. The objective for system and BOP component lifetime is ten years, i.e. 10.000 hrs.The consortium consists of large and small entities which are R&D centers: Environment Park, JRC, Foundation for the Development of New Hydrogen Technologies in Aragon, Jozef Stefan Institute, University of Ljubljana- Faculty for Mechanical Engineering; BoP components industrial developers and manufacturers: Domel for air and hydrogen blower, Tubiflex for humidifier and Onda for heat exchangers; fuel cells stack and fuel cell system developers and manufacturers Nedstack and Electro Power Systems (coordinator). Three successive releases of air blower, hydrogen blower and humidifier and one heat exchanger has been developed and delivered. Main results are:• The air blower developed in the project shows significant improvements respect to SoA in terms of cost, efficiency, lifetime and it is ready to be used in commercial fuel cell system products.• The hydrogen blower developed in the project has proper flow capacity and presents lower consumption than SoA, but further development is necessary to improve lifetime. • The humidifier developed in the project has been proved to be very promising in terms of material, performance, design and manufacturing costs. Further development activities are required in the manufacturing process to improve lifetime.• The H2/air heat exchanger development has been interrupted as no benefits were observed, while several disadvantages exist (increase in costs and system space and reduction of efficiency).

Two releases of 3kW and 6 kW fuel cell systems including the successive releases of developed BoP components have been developed and tested. Test characterization confirmed the proper performance of developed BOP components for operation in the fuel cell systems and advantages in terms of BOP power consumption have been measured (8.6% power consumption achieved). A computer model has been developed in Simulink/Matlab environment for fuel cell stack, air blower, humidifier, H2 blower, according to theoretical equations and laws, and improved, when possible, with real results from the tests carried out during the project. The validation process resulted in a good matching between the experimental values and those obtained in the simulation. A dynamic approach has been followed to perform an efficiency assessment in a complete set of scenarios, as a function of external ambient conditions (related to specific markets) and operating variables. Specific activities related to market preparation and environmental sustainability assessment have been performed: RCS report analysis with the full range of regulations, codes and standards that apply stationary fuel cell systems; LCA report analysis with evaluation of each component of the fuel cell system regarding material composition, production processes, supply of fuel including evaluation of tie-up time of material resources and system overall energetic efficiency; End-of-Life (EoL) assessment for main components of 3kW Flumaback fuel cell system, taking into account reverse logistics process and legislation; a detailed market analysis for each BOP components and fuel cell systems including potential business cases for Flumaback fuel cell systems in North Africa and North Europe in the telecommunication sector.For dissemination purpose, Flumaback dedicated website was created (www.flumaback.eu).Contact details: ilaria.rosso@electropowersystems.commitja.mori@fs.uni-lj.si

Project Context and Objectives:Stationary fuel cells can efficiently convert pure hydrogen, biogas, natural gas or other gaseous hydrocarbons into electricity and heat – often in cogeneration, i.e. combined heat and power generation. Due to their flexibility, as pointed out in the FCH JU – Fuel Cell Distributed Generation Commercialisation Study “Advancing Europe's energy systems: Stationary fuel cells in distributed generation” , stationary fuel cells are highly efficient technology to transform today’s fossil fuels and tomorrow’s clean fuels into power and heat, with the potential to be one of the enablers of Europe’s transition into a new energy age. In the last decade, stationary power applications using hydrogen have advanced and reached market penetration status in different geographical areas. Indeed, hydrogen fuel cells represent an optimal solution for frequent blackouts or off-grid applications being able to store excess energy and instantaneously release it when a power dip or outage occur providing reliable power when needed. These advantages have been recognized by industries. Indeed, according to The Fuel Cell Industry Review 2014, 70.200 units of fuel cells were shipped all in each region of the world in 2014 from which 45.600 were stationary fuel cells.

From market perspective point of view, growth in the fuel cell market continues to accelerate after 2013 and 2014 saw rising demand in portable, transportation, and stationary applications in particular. Stationary applications, which vary widely by country and region, include utility-scale, industrial/commercial building, and residential power fuel cells. According to a recent report from Navigant Research, fuel cell systems for all applications are expected to generate nearly $57.8 billion in annual revenue by 2023 . Despite the significant increase in number of shipped units all around the world, and the attractive market perspective, fuel cells still have challenges to overcome and some issues to be addressed: • Cost: Except in premium applications such as back-up power generation for major financial institutions, systems costs need to be reduced in order to become attractive for backup power and base load power generation;• Lifetime: Long time operation of fuel cell systems has been demonstrated, but cannot be taken for granted yet; • Reliability: The reliability of fuel cell system under a broad range of ambient conditions needs to be guaranteed for full adoption by end users;• Novelty: In most conservative markets, any new technology requires significant support and public understanding in order to compete;• Infrastructure: Refuelling, large-scale manufacturing processes and support infrastructures, such as trained personnel, are not yet available for fuel cell systems.Up to today, the applied research has focused mostly on the core components of fuel cell systems, such as stacks and cells, not considering potential benefits behind the improvement on the sub-components of fuel cell systems such as the BOP components. On top of this, there is a clear need for the targeted industry-oriented development for improved BOP components. Current fuel cell back-up systems include BoP components not specifically developed for fuel cell systems (BOP components that derive from research applications that could fit well fuel cell system working conditions that are very expensive, or/and BoP components that derive from other industrial sectors with a lower cost and reduced performances).Both these approaches affect the reliability and the cost-competitiveness of the entire fuel cell system, compromising their massive adoption in the business continuity market.The objectives behind the Flumaback project can clearly address the above-mentioned challenges and needs. Indeed, the FluMaBack (Fluid Management component improvement for Back up fuel cell systems) project aims to improve the performance, life time and cost of BOP components of back up fuel cell systems specifically developed to face black-out periods of around 1,000h/year for specific markets: USA, Africa and North Europe where hard operative conditions are present (high and low temperatures). Due to this long time operation requirement the improvement of system components addressed in this project will benefit both back-up and CHP applications.The project focuses on new design and improvement of BOP components for utilization in PEMFC based stationary power applications, aimed at:- improving BOP components performance, in terms of reliability;- improving the lifetime of BOP component both at component and at a system level;- reducing cost in a mass production perspective;- simplifying the manufacturing/assembly process of the entire fuel cell system.While in recent years, the performance and durability of the PEMFC have increased and the cost has decreased at the same time, performance, durability and costs of BOP components have basically stayed the same. So, for improvements on performance, durability and cost of the fuel cell system, R&D dedicated on BOP components have become essential. The project is focused on the most critical BOP components with the largest potential for performance improvement and cost reductions:- Air and fluid flow equipments, including subcomponents and more specifically blower and recirculation pumps- Humidifier- Heat exchangerSpecific targets in terms of efficiency and cost have been pointed out for each BOP component to be developed in the project. The objective for system and BOP component lifetime is ten years, i.e. 10.000 hrs.

The 3 years project duration guarantees the achievement of all project targets. The consortium consists of large and small entities that are R&D centres Environment Park, JRC, Foundation for the Development of New Hydrogen Technologies in Aragon, Jozef Stefan Institute , University of Ljubljana- Faculty for Mechanical Engineering and BoP components industrial developers and manufacturers: Domel, Tubiflex and Onda, fuel cells stack and fuel cell system developers and manufacturers, Nedstack and Electro Power Systems.The partners are located throughout the EU: Italy, Spain, The Netherland and Slovenia. This consortium represents a real opportunity for developing a strategic alliance of industrial actors that in future can collaborate fostering the technological evolution of the components towards more efficient and flexible BOP components that will allow fuel cell industry to exploit the huge opportunities both for EU market and for emerging countries.

Project Results:1. Experimental and Economic Assessment of Functional Requirements of BOP componentsThe technical and economical specifications of each BoP components to be developed have been defined with the aim to arrive at “best value for money” BOP components, in terms of performance (reliability and efficiency), lifetime, cost and assembly simplification. Starting points have been:- the process scheme of the fuel cell system to be developed by Electro Power Systems- operating conditions and characteristics of Nedstack fuel cell stack

1.1: Technical and economical specification of blower

Starting from the project targets reported in the DOW, the performance specifications for Blower have been defined according to functional requirement of both fuel cell stack and fuel cell system.The fuel cells application requires several features hard to reach at the same time. The system circuit pressure drop is relatively high and the needs of relatively high pressure, proper flow and efficiency together with long lifetime are considerably challenging. Furthermore, the target of reducing the cost is very important.Several blower manufacturers are able to offer solutions satisfying only one or two requirements at the same time. However offering all the above reported features is considerably more challenging and a product satisfying more than one or two features at the same time at low cost is not yet present in the market.

1.2: Technical and economical specification of recirculation pump

Starting from the project targets reported in the DOW, the performance specifications for recirculation pump have been defined according to functional requirement of both fuel cell stack and fuel cell system.At the current state of the art, the reference and most used technology for the hydrogen recirculation is the membrane pump. Several companies offer membrane pump-based solutions in the market. However this technology does not guarantee long lifetime due to degradation of elastomeric membrane mechanical properties that leads to the membrane break after a certain number of cycles. From this point of view, the blower technology does not include delicate moving parts and can theoretically guarantee longer lifetime.However, to the consortium knowledge no hydrogen blower with the reported requirements is present in the market. In fact, the use of blower with hydrogen is challenging due to some difficulties in making the bearings or the grease compatible with humid hydrogen, Furthermore there are considerably more moving part to be perfectly sealed from the hydrogen respect to a membrane pump. Thus, a deep development activity is required in order to satisfy their challenging technical requirements.

1.3: Technical and economical specification of humidifier

Starting from the project targets reported in the DOW, the performance specifications for humidifier have been defined according to functional requirement of both fuel cell stack and fuel cell system.At present time, only a few companies in the world provide reliable and performing humidifier for fuel cell application. The main issue in this case is the relative high cost of component due mostly to the high cost of the perfuorosulfonic membrane and its hard manufacturability.In this contest developing a humidifier with a lower cost and a higher flexibility (more power size with the same component) is demanding in order to contribute to the fuel cell system price reduction.

1.4: Technical and economical specification of heat exchanger According to the original DOW, the development of a heat exchanger directly located at the head of the fuel cell stack was foreseen because at the time of proposal presentation and negotiation the fuel cell system developed by the final user presented two cooling circuits: the first one was thermally connected with fuel cell stack coolant through a liquid/liquid heat exchanger, the second included a split (air/liquid) connected with ambient.According to the current process scheme of the fuel cell system, one cooling circuit is now present, therefore during the kick-off meeting it was agreed to develop the remaining external heat exchanger and a new one to pre-heat hydrogen before inlet into the stack. The evaluation of the advantage/disadvantage of such introduction represents one of the scope of the project.The performance specifications for Air/H2 heat exchanger humidifier have been defined according to functional requirement of both fuel cell stack and fuel cell system.According to functional requirement of fuel cell system the performance specifications for external heat exchanger (Air/Glysantin) have been defined.As such heat exchanger is usually already available as commercial product, additional specifications regarding non corroding with glysantine and presence of thermostatic by-pass valve have been requested.

2. BoP components development

2.1 Development of the successive releases of air blower (leader: Domel)Three iterations of air blower has been developed and delivered in order to achieve the expected technical and economical specifications.The air blower prototype is a three stage blower designed to achieve required airflow and pressure performance in system operating point (Table 1). The prototype design is an optimal compromise between efficiency, lifetime and economical requirements. Domel developed three stage blower with three impellers to provide sufficient pressure difference. CFD analyses were done by UL to verify flow circumstances in channels inside of blower and regularity of all components construction.To achieve also the economic target the blower was designed so it can be used for 3kW and 6kW system with only a small change of regulation voltage. At airflow exit from the blower the threaded hole was made to enable fixation of pressure sensor. If required to avoid a negative impact of pressure sensor on the air flow we suggest having additional adapter added to this hole to prevent sensor being placed into the air stream. For the blower performance measurement this hole was closed.The most critical blower components for lifetime specification are bearings. With current design the rotational speed has been reduced as much as possible, without compromising the efficiency. This new design should achieve much better lifetime than currently existing blowers and should achieve more than 20000h. The lifetime is strongly dependent also on environmental conditions (temperature, dust particles, humidity...) and should be proven by testing.The second iteration of the air blower is optimised for NEW working points, which were provided by Nedstack (required pressure is lower due to removal of the heat exchanger).To improve efficiency new impeller geometry was designed, sealing at the impeller inlet (between compressor stages) was improved, and new motor (stator winding) was used. The rotational speed is reduced for about 1000 rpm at WP 6kW and for about 500 rpm at WP 3kW, which also means the lifetime will be higher.

The third iteration of the air blower is optimized for reduced lifetime, which is now 10 000 hours. Due to the reduced lifetime the rotational speed could be increased up to 30 000 rpm (second iteration has 17 000 rpm). To reach higher efficiency impeller and diffuser geometry were developed with CFD simulations, new type of impeller inlet sealing was designed and new EC motor and electronic were used. Due to increased rotational speed impellers with smaller diameter could be designed, which means the complete blower has smaller dimensions and reduced weight (up to 340 g compared to the second iteration).

The successive iterations of air blowers that have been developed and delivered.

Preliminary tests performed at Domel demonstrated the improved performance of successive iterations: lower energy consumption and a better efficiency.

In addition to this, Domel provided cost estimation for the three iterations of air blower developed.

The target cost of 50€/kW present in DOW has been fully achieved for all blower iterations to be employed in the 6kW fuel cell system in production samples of 100 pieces. It is not fully achieved if the air blower is employed in 3kW fuel cell system even if production samples are of 2500 pieces.

Such cost estimation have been used in WP6 for the market analysis described in deliverable D 6.4 – Market study report and Implementation plan.

In order to perform end-quality control line for blowers JSI developed two test points to track every produced item according to different parameters: vibration quality, bearings, impeller, sound emission, anechoic chamber, electrical properties, voltage, current and power. End-quality control line for blowers has been installed at Domel facility.

The hydrogen recirculation blower is a completely novel design. To overcome the problems of existing recirculation pump designs (low life time, low efficiency and high noise), a centrifugal blower solution (instead of membrane or side channel) has been developed with three stage innovative impeller channel design. To prevent hydrogen leakage and material degradation appropriate materials and components were used and materials sensitive to hydrogen were protected. Development activities have been performed in strict co-operation among Domel, EP, Nedstack and JSI. The Ansys software tool was used for the CFD analysis by UL to optimize aerodynamics parts and to provide structural and modal analysis of components. Three successive iterations have been developed and delivered to achieve the project targets.

Testing activities on the first iteration detected several problems: bearings are not appropriate for use in hydrogen environment due to grease which became more viscous; the blower could not reach the full speed; High temperature of casing; high energy consumption; inlet and outlet connectors are too small (1/8‘‘ thread); resistance of hydrogen flow.

Second iteration of the hydrogen blower has improved cooling, changed inlet and outlet connectors and added fixation points on housing that the installation with rubber dampers is possible to reduce vibrations and noise. Second iteration also has integrated electronic with sensors to more stable control and added electric contact to reduce leakage of hydrogen.Second iteration blowers successfully performed tests with dry and humidified hydrogen, but then stopped operating after ½ h. The issue were damaged bearings, due to the water, which came through bearing inside of the motor and removed grease out of it. The problem appeared although the labyrinth sealing was added and therefore it has been decided to develop new iteration of blower.

The third iteration is redesign of second iteration, which means that the main parts, such as motor, impellers, diffusers and return channels are the same, different is only a position of electric motor. The motor is now placed above of the aerodynamic part to prevent damage of bearings due to the water. Due to the relocation of the motor the hydrogen inlet connector is not anymore on top, but it is now on the side, between motor and aerodynamic part.Test results will be presented in paragraph 3.

Estimation of manufacturing cost has been performed as well. Prices for manufacturing of 2,500 and 20,000 pieces are budgeted prices that should add costs for several tooling and production equipment plus additional R&D activities.Anyway, the target cost of 34€/kW present in DOW should be fully achieved for 6kW fuel cell system (and almost achieved for the 3 kW fuel cell system) in production samples of 20,000 pieces.

2.3 Development of successive releases of humidifier (leader: Tubiflex)

Humidifier is completely new development for the industrial partner involved. Tubiflex started their activity performing patent investigation about existing humidifier patents (tubular and planar) made by INTERPATENT. The investigation showed that there are no patents active for applications of interest on either planar nor tubular humidifier.Analysis of Tubiflex continued on selection of proper material alternative to Nafion. The investigation conducted to use a hollow membrane whose geometry is not affected from pressure changes and that has good water permeability and high selectivity between water and nitrogen. For this purpose, polymer with an asymmetric structure and polisulfone based with the ideal composition of a polysulfone and polyvinyl-pyrrolidone mix in a 70/30 ratio seemed to be the best option.Three releases have been developed and delivered by Flumaback. Development activities have been supported by CFD calculations carried out by UL. Concept design has been considered with aim to comply: performance requirements (humidification, pressure drop) of 3 kW and 6 kW fuel cell system; Overall length of the humidifier equal or less than stack length; Inlet and outlet connections design to optimize general piping layout.The three iteration of humidifiers have been developed and delivered.A detailed manufacturing cycle has been defined by Tubiflex together with a preliminary economical evaluation taking into account the current manufacturing cycle and raw materials procurement. The final cost of the humidifier prototype employing Membrana fibers is 347.5 €, resulting in a cost for humidifier for the 3kW fuel cell system of 116 €/kW and for the 6 kW fuel cell system of 58 €/kW. The target cost (Euro/kW) <100 €, in DOW, is thus achieved for both 3 kW and 6 kW fuel cell system even with a not optimized manufacturing process and for limited number of pieces (up to 10).This result is therefore very promising for next mass manufacturing step.

2.4 Development of successive releases of heat exchanger (leader: Onda)

First release of Air/H2 heat exchanger prototypes for 3 kW and 6 kW fuel cell systems have developed and delivered according to the technical specifications defined in 1.4 paragraph.First tests performed by Nedstack and EP pointed out that the high pressure drop over the heat exchanger inhibits successful application. A second release has been delivered but it still appeared difficult to meet both principal specifications for the internal heat exchanger at the same time: low pressure drop on the air side and high temperature increase on the hydrogen side. No benefits were observed when applying this component, while several disadvantages exist (increase in costs and system space and reduction of efficiency). Therefore, as per decision during the Mid Term Review, this component and further development was eliminated.

3. BOP component testing activities

3.1 Test protocol definition (leader: EP)

The test protocol has been developed. It reports specific test procedures for each BoP component and fuel cell system in full accordance with manufacturers and the end-user in order to validate the performance criteria of the components concerned in the development activities. Special attention has been put in order to avoid overlapping among tests performed by individual manufacturer, Nedstack (in charge of validation of basic suitability of BOP components for stack operation) and research centres. The definition of the testing procedure includes also a strategy for performing accelerated tests on the components to validate anticipated lifetime. Specifically, an ageing model has been defined and agreed with manufacturers and end user.

The protocol includes 3 types of test for each these BOP components:A) fine characterization test (FCT) particularly used for the first release of each BOP componentB) life/ageing test (LAT)C) periodical performance reference test (for validation purpose) (PRT)A revised test protocol has been proposed in a second phase of the project taking into account results of the market analysis. It came out that the new addressed markets for the developed fuel cell systems are North-Europe remote locations and North Africa, instead of Asia. This means that real time of back-up is around 1,000 h/year, so that 10 years lifetime is about 10,000 h instead of 20,000 h. The modified test protocol on BoP components (air blower and H2 pump) considered these changes and the accelerated aging tests followed a new protocol, in order to reach 10,000 h in the timeframe of the project. Full details are reported in the public deliverables D5.1 Test protocol definition and D5.6 Revised test protocol.

3.2 Test of air blower (successive releases) (leader: EP)

A dedicated test-bench has been built-up at EP facilities to perform the fine characterization test of successive iteration of blowers developed and delivered.From the results data analysis it figures out significant improvements has been achieved in the successive iterations with regards to the reference, commercial, air blower. The third air blower has highest capacity and presents increased efficiency very close to the target project specification.

EP test results are compared with Domel and Nedstack results reporting that the engine consumptions at 3kW and at 6 kW measured during the fine characterization at EP compared with the data collected by Nedstack during the test with the fuel cell and the data from Domel.The data compared between EP and Domel are similar, only for the first release are quite different.The consumption reported by Nedstack is lower, but this is related because it has measured pressure drop lower than the target point and also it has actual flows that are 10% below reported values due to offset of the Bosch airflow meter. The consumptions reported by Nedstack are higher, because they are measured at new working point of 545 l/min and 180 mbar. Due to small differences in experimental setup and conditions among partners, also small differences in energy consumption are reported. However, the general trend of a significant reduction in energy consumption from reference to the final, third iteration is confirmed for all partners and hence are valid under all conditions.

The ageing test protocol has been performed on the third release of air blower.A middle and end-time characterization was performed on the same bench used for the fine characterization and no deviations were detected: same pressure drop, consumptions and static efficiency. Thus lifetime expectancy of 10,000 hours has been confirmed.Summarizing, the air blower developed in the project shows significant improvements from the reference performance of commercial product and achieved the expected target in terms of both power consumption and expected lifetime.

The successive releases of the recirculation blower have been characterized on a test bench system set up by EP capable of measuring the performance of the device in terms of pressure drop, flow rate, temperature and energy consumption. Problems already described in paragraph 2.2 have been detected by both EP and Nedstack.Because of the limited time available, only EP has tested the third release.Mainly it is clear that development results are as follows:- reduced energy consumption from first to third releases, better with dry hydrogen;- reduced problems occurred during the previous blowers, due to the increased temperatures;- no interruptions due to corrosion;- start up and tests repeated 5 times: data repeatability.From the results data analysis it figures out that the third blower is well designed for the purpose: it has proper flow capacity and presents lower consumption, close to the target project specification; however because of the additional time requested for the development activities and related late delivery of the third release, the ageing tests on the third release haven’t been performed, so lifetime target has not be evaluated.

3.4 Test of humidifier (successive releases) (leader: EP)

The humidifier was characterized on a dedicated bench test system, where air humidity can be controlled, by a separate thermodynamic equilibrium humidifier. The purpose of the test is a fine evaluation of the water transfer capabilities of the device from the wet to the dry stream. Humidification performance has been checked by testing humidifier with the air blower (Configuration of the project). With regard to the pressure drops the three humidifiers and also the reference one, present, at equal flow, lower pressure drop on tube side; 4mbar at 3kWFCS working point and between 5 and 6 mbar at 6kWFCS working point.Regarding the analysis on the shell side pressure drops:The third new release presents pressure drop comparable with the target points; the other releases present pressure drops higher than the target, due to the higher number of the fibers (second release) and to the low area for secondary flow inlet and outlet.The sum of the losses is lower than the target points; this allows the blower to work at a lower voltage, with a reduction in consumption.In addition, the first, third new and the reference humidifiers have shown a good performance according to the project targets: a good transport efficiency of 85-90% is reached matching the initial specification of 90%RH@55°C. By contrast, the second release, due to hollow fibers increase, is negatively affect by the humidity exchange.Regarding the ageing tests of humidifier, the ageing of the component is mainly due to the fibers exposed to extreme conditions, where the shutdown procedure has not expelled all the water and this goes to crystallize inside the fibers in dramatic weather conditions.The revised protocol provided ageing activities on the first humidifier release, because the first and third releases present the same hollow fibers number and the same hollow fibers surface.After the tests on the 6kW fuel cell system (1st release), see chapter 4, the humidifier was removed from the system and mounted on a dedicated test bench to be tested in order to follow the protocol.During preliminary characterization part of the airflow passes from dry to wet side inside the humidifier.When the humidifier was opened, many tubes were broken, probably due to an ageing of the material, consequently to wet and dry cycles during the tests on the system.Ageing tests was performed only on the fibers in order to perform degradation study for the material. To the purpose wet and dry cycles has been performed. After 10 cycles of wet/dry cycles, no significant degradation at material level has been observed and it can be concluded that the degradation occurred close to the resin and the fibers.As a conclusion, the humidifier developed in FluMaBack Project is very promising in terms of identified material (alternative to Nafion), design and manufacturing costs. Further development activities are required in the manufacturing process to improve lifetime.

4. Fuel cell system development and testing

4.1 Development of the first release of the 3kW and 6kW fuel cell systems including first release of BoP components (leader: EPS)

The starting point of the development of the first release of 3 kW and 6 kW fuel cell systems has been to build the system in a cabinet very similar to the one used by EPS for its standard products. However after preliminary evaluation, it was noted that this approach presented some weak points, e.g. the small space for maintenance or substitution of components; the impossibility to mount the AIR – H2 heat exchanger on the lowest part of the system (for condensing water removal) or the impossibility of components displacement or to change their position.For the above reasons it was decided to manufacture the first release of fuel cell systems using a more flexible structure made of extruded aluminum profiles that will allow to change the component position, to replace them easily and to place sensors and gauges where necessary. Moreover, it was decided to make it bigger than the standard cabinet on each dimension to make an easy access to the components and to include also the air-coolant heat exchanger. The easy access to the components facilitates the measurements during the tests and the inclusion of measurements instruments. Furthermore it makes also easier the implementation of any modifications able to improve the system performance and/or reliability.The two prototypes of 3kW and 6 kW fuel cell systems have been assembled as shown in figure 17 including the first release of BOP components. They has been preliminarily tested to verify the correct set up and then delivered to EP for testing (see paragraph 4.3).

4.2 Development of the second release for the 3kW and 6kW fuel cell systems including second release of BoP components (leader: EPS)

The development of the second release of 3 kW and 6 kW fuel cell systems including second release of BoP components required a close cooperation between EPS, the fuel cell system manufacturer, and EP that tested the 1st release of 3 kW and 6 kW and suggested improvements applied on the 2nd release of 3 kW and 6 kW. On 1st release fuel cell system several problems related to the BoP software configuration have been pointed outThe 2nd release of prototypes of 3kW and 6 kW fuel cell systems have been assembled in a standard cabinets, close box, instead of open box configuration as it was for 1st release. The cabinets used are larger than standard cabinets used for EPS products in order to facilitate the assembly operations of the BoP components.Contrary to the 1st release that used an open box configuration, the cabinet used for the 2nd release is provided with air recirculation fans and relative controls integrated into the software to ensure no explosive area inside the cabinet. In addition to this, the cabinet has been equipped with a heating system device to prevent freezing for outdoor operations that will be simulated in climatic chamber tests.The 2nd release of prototypes of 3kW and 6 kW fuel cell systems includes third iteration of both air blower and humidifier. By contrast, as 2nd iteration of hydrogen blower still has overheating, noising and starting problem, it was agreed to assembly in the system a commercial hydrogen recirculation pump available on the market.The two prototypes of 3kW and 6 kW fuel cell systems have been assembled and preliminarily tested to verify the correct set up and then delivered to EP for testing (see paragraph 4.3).

4.3 Test of prototype FCS (first and second release) (leader: EP)

Test procedures used are derived from the FCH-JU funded FITUP project.The main target of these tests is the evaluation of FC system behaviour in case of grid failures. These tests should confirm the functionality, reliability and performance of the system with new developed BoP components.The first releases are only “open prototypes”, in order to measure additional external measurements:- Air blower performances;- Electric performances;- Evaluation of system efficiencyA proper test set-up has been established for performing tests.During the test of the first release of 3 and 6 kW fuel cell systems (Open box configuration) at EP several problems occurred.The main problem concerned management of stack drying and flooding, which caused poor stack performance, problem confirmed also by Nedstack. Initially, excessive airflows due to limited controllability of the blower resulted in stack drying and instable and poor performance. Later, the problem was detected as water droplets condensing in the cathode inlet pipes, such that liquid obstructed bipolar plates channels. Changes in the blower management, as operated by the controller, was required, since the original EPS software was programmed to increase lower set point voltage, thus increasing airflow rate when the cell voltage showed symptoms of flooding. This control logic is based on the fact that liquid water is formed on MEA’s catalyst sites, as by-product of hydrogen and oxygen reaction, and can sometimes obstruct reactants (mainly oxygen/air) flow through the cell, leading to a cell voltage reduction (starvation phenomena taking place). The problem was tackled with an ad-hoc solution, since the root cause is the particular ‘exploded’ layout of the release 1: exposed steel piping allowed the humidified airflow to condense and dew formation. In addition, the control logic had to be tuned to avoid excessive airflows and instable operation. Further support from EPS to EP was given in the overall hardware configuration, to allow installation of current, voltage drop and RH measurement equipment. Finally, the 75-cell direct monitoring was necessary at EP for external data acquisition of fuel cell stack of 6 kW FCS. This is because original EPS software was designed to allow the external data acquisition up to 64 cell. In addition, air blower excess flow, probably caused prolonged MEA drying, leading to poor system performance.At the end it has been demonstrated that the very poor 6 kW fuel cell system and related stack performances are due to damage of humidifier: almost 45% of the air goes to the shell side without flowing through the stack so that a low stoichiometry is available; in addition almost 50% of airflow is leaking from dry to wet side inside the humidifier, leading to poor humidification.The second releases (3 and 6kW) are only “closed systems”; the tests have followed the test protocol, and the “lessons learned” during the first releases characterization allowed to complete the analysis.In the second release the BOP consumption has been carefully evaluated.For the 3kW FCS it has been measured that:Fuel cell stack data: current=135A, V = 27.4 Power=3700W. Pload =2950W. Efficiency=79% (Pload/Pstack).Auxiliary consumption and conversion losses: 790W.Considering the power electronics efficiency, supplied by EPS, the single contribution of auxiliaries and conversion losses can be evaluated. The DC/C converter has, in fact, a 94.5% efficiency when operating at 3kW, so the power supplied to the auxiliaries is ~550 W.For the 6 kW fuel cell system it has been measured that:STACK DATA: Vstack=47.6V Stack current 150A, P=7163W, Pload=6000WEfficiency=84% (Pload/Pstack).Ancillaries and Conversion losses: 1163 W. Analizing the DC/DC converter efficiency curve, at 6 kW ouput it is 91%. This allows the ancillaries consumption evaluation, resulting in ~520 W, representing the 8.6% of the net system output (7.2% compared to the stack gross output).The target of BOP power consumption equal to 8.3% of DOW related to 6 kW fuel cell system output power is therefore substantially achieved.Second release of 3 kW fuel cell system has been tested in Climatic chamber at JRC as well.Tests have been performed at hot and dry condition (45°C and 10%RH) and hot and humid condition (45°C and 80%RH). Freezing startup (- 40°C) was not conducted due to the problem of the coolant circuit leakage occurred during the previous test.Hydrogen consumption evaluation has been performed at both EP and JRC with similar results of about 245 g/h.

5. Computer model development

A prototype model in Matlab Simulink has been developed by FHA through the module called Thermolib, which allows treatment of all the devices with liquid or gaseous fluids quickly and easily. Each of the modules or blocks represents every device in the system, including the features of each of them so they can be modified quickly in case of equipment modifications.First, the complete BOP interconnected systems was proposed using the available Thermolib block models (Matlab/Simulink environment) for every component of the BOP. To comply further with the equipment description, the main components have been specifically modeled with updated Simulink blocks: Updated models for air blower, H2 recirculation pump, gas heat exchangers, fuel cell stack and humidifier are proposed. These models are developed according to theoretical equations and laws, and improved when possible with real results from the tests carried out during the project.Specifically, models have been developed for:• Fuel cell stack, modifying the basic behavior of the library’s block (beyond the standard characterization according to voltage-current curves) to adapt it too Relative humidity influenceo Pressure (oxygen pressure, atmospheric pressure)o Air ratio influence (lambda)o End of life and beginning of life real behavioro Pressure losso Temperature corrections (different temperatures profiles for coolant, stack and gases) to represent the real behavior of the stack• Air blower, modifying the standard library’s block to adapt it to the different Flumaback prototypes’ results, specifically, taking into account:o Inlet air conditions (pressure, humidity)o Efficiency and temperature increase in the airo Relationship between control voltage (blowers’ electronics), characteristic curve and real power consumption• Air humidifier: several blocks and functions have been developed from scratch in the project, because the technology used in Flumaback is not represented in the Simulink library. The model has considered:o Mass and enthalpy balances for the air (humid/dry) streamso Pressure dropo Approach temperature and approach dew point temperature, based on the manufacturers data sheet.• Hydrogen recirculation pump and heat exchangers have been modeled along the project duration but were finally discarded for the final simulations. In this aspect:o Hydrogen recirculation pump used was the objective or theoretical one, as some empirical problems made difficult its fully characterization for modeling purposeso Flumaback developments for an External HX (for coolant) and the initially studied gas/gas HX were modeled, but not furtherly used during the second half of the project.• Control blocks were developed for modelling purposes, in order to exploit the dynamic capabilities of the model and in order to adapt each separate block (stack, blowers, etc) to work together as a real BOP, reaching the set points selected by the user.• The validation process included the comparison between the results obtained in the simulation of the developed fuel cell model with the information provided by the partners of the real tests performed. In the results provided, a good matching between the experimental values and those obtained in the simulation can be observed.• An efficiency assessment was done regarding a complete set of scenarios, as a function of external ambient conditions (correlated to addressed markets i.e. North Europe and North Africa) and operating variables (air temperature, air pressure and humidity, ageing of the stack).• The dynamic approach of the model could be furtherly used to improve the process of developing a control loop in the real system, but also could be exploited as a predicting tool, in order to detect if control and alarms are well designed for every working condition.

Potential Impact:As above stated, one of the main objectives of the Flumaback project is to improve the performance, life time and cost of BOP components of back up fuel cell systems specifically developed to face black-out periods of around 1,000h/year for specific markets: USA, Africa and North Europe where hard operative conditions are present (high and low temperatures). Accordingly, several activities have been performed within WP6 and WP7 related to Regulation Codes and Standards (RCS) that apply to fuel cells and hydrogen and specifically stationary fuel cell systems; life cycle analysis (LCA); End –of-Life Assessment (EoL) and dissemination respectively. All related deliverables are public.

The main goal of this task was to present proper report on RCS based on a detailed study of the following point: - Analysis of the full range of regulations, codes and standards that apply fuel cells and hydrogen;- Definition of a stationary fuel cell system;- Determination the most important RCS that apply this application;- Analysis of the most important RCS that apply this application.

Considering fuel cell and hydrogen RCS that apply at this moment, are just several European Directives that could apply, but not closely related to hydrogen or fuel cells but to the application. Besides, there are a small number of European standards about stationary fuel cell systems: - Directive 94/9/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 March 1994 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. (Commonly named ATEX 95, ATEX Equipment Directive).- Directive 1999/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 1999 on minimum requirements for improving the safety and health protection of workers potentially at risk from explosive atmospheres (15th individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC). (Commonly named ATEX 137, ATEX Workplace Directive).- Directive 97/23/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 May 1997 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning pressure equipment. - Directive 2004/108/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2004 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to electromagnetic compatibility and repealing Directive 89/336/EEC Text with EEA relevance.- Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 on machinery, and amending Directive 95/16/EC (recast) (Text with EEA relevance).

In addition to the Directives, the following European standards have been identified: - IEC/TS 62282-1 Ed. 2.0. Fuel cell technologies. Terminology.- IEC/TC 62282-2 Ed. 2.0. Fuel cell technologies. Fuel cell modules.- IEC 62282-3-100 Ed. 1.0Stationary fuel cell power systems. Safety- IEC 62282-3-200 Ed. 1.0 Stationary fuel cell power systems. Performance test methods.- IEC 62282-3-300 Ed. 1.0 Stationary fuel cell power systems. Installation.- IEC 62282-3-201 Ed.1.0 Stationary fuel cell power systems – Performance test methods for small fuel cell power systems.- IEC 62040 – 1 Uninterruptible power systems (UPS) – Part 1: General and safety requirements for UPS.- IEC 62040 – 2 Uninterruptible power systems (UPS) – Part 2: Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements.Despite the extensive legislation at European level applicable to any process or equipment involved in the manufacture and development of electric fuel cell power generation, there is still no explicit legislation regarding such systems.European standards collect this type of system, as seen herein; terminology, installation, security and types of tests to be performed in determining the performance are defined.There remains the transposition of those standards to specific regulations on this issue at European level that provide enough features for the specific devices in this application, indicating ranges of variables for each level of power established.Regarding the analysis taken, it could be conclude that the prototype will be developed with the aim to be compliant with all the regulations and standards related to this application.

All related deliverable are public.

2. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) (Leader: FHa, UL)

The objective of the LCA assessment is to evaluate each component of the fuel cell system regarding material composition, production processes, supply of fuel, waste management and recycling of the unit components, including evaluation of tie-up time of materials resources in the society and system overall energetic efficiency. LCA has been carried out using available data from component production and Flumaback hydrogen technologies UPS (HT-UPS) assembly process. This assessment will help to understand critical points in the terms of environmental impact and potential reductions in emissions within the production process and operation.The goal of the study was to determine environmental impacts of the HT-UPS. The system’s physical boundaries include the UPS’s subsystems: fuel cell stack, BoP components (air humidifier, blower, H2 recirculation blower and external heat exchanger), monitoring and assembly process with auxiliary equipment, etc. In terms of phases the study was done for manufacturing process of HT-UPS and operation phase of 10,000 h with hydrogen production by means of electrolysis in defined location of operation sites: Norway (Oslo) & Morocco (Marrakesh).

The updated LCA model calculates the environmental impacts for both end site location Norway and Morocco. As revealed by the analysis, In the case of Norway the most influential phase is manufacturing phase. Just in the case of GW where 82% of impact comes from operational phase due to electricity production, whereas in the case of Morocco the contribution of operational phase is more influential because electricity in Morocco is 91 % produced from fossil fuels.For the manufacturing phase Global Worming (GW) caused by manufacturing process had been considered. As can been seen from the graph, in manufacturing process:• main impacts comes from fuel cell, battery and cabinet production;• impact can be directly linked to the mass of the component; • fuel cell and battery production, the high energy consumption, is a very important parameter; and• transport of all components to assembly site in Torino represents just 1 % of total GW.

The LCA assessment analysed the CO2 emission that had been made comparing CO2 emission per 1 kWhe from several technologies (global averages).

As revealed by the analysis, it is evident that 1kWh electricity produced with FluMaBack 3 kW UPS system that is installed in Norway has significantly lower CO2 emission that electricity from fossil fuels. In contrary if system is installed in Morocco impact is almost 13 times bigger.Summarizing, main conclusions are that the manufacturing phase is more influential in all environmental indicators in the case of Norway because of hydro energy mix in electricity production. By contrast, in Morocco the influence of used electricity (91% from fossil fuels) for H2 production is dominant. Whereas, transport has a negligible influence in all environmental impacts.All the environmental LCA data resulting from this study will be available to the ILCD Data Network.

All related deliverable are public.

3. End-of-life assessment (EoL) (leader FHa,UL)

As for common daily hardware, the necessary actions for disposal of the fuel cell system at its end of useful lifetime have to be foreseen. This study implied a revision of the current environmental legislation and future trends, a thorough classification of the components regarding their materials and its level of environmental hazard, the potential of valorisation of the materials, the reverse logistics for hazardous and not hazardous items, lay out of specifications for the works of disassembly and disposal of parts and components, as well as recommendations regarding packaging, transport, and information display for the final users.

Environmental legislation in the European Union (EU) is a set of decisions, regulations, directives, etc. which have to protect, regulate rescue and safeguard the Union's citizens from environment-related pressures. The EU has put in place a broad range of environmental legislations due to an intense effort. Approximately 200 or so environmental laws cover most eventualities nowadays.A full analysis of different of regulation codes and standards that apply to fuel cell systems for EoL analysis has been performed both in terms of current environmental legislation and future trends.

Regarding current environmental legislations, the EU has developed a framework which helps to group together different directives, regulations, etc, the Environment Action Programme, and currently it is in effect the 7th Environment Action Programme (7th EAP) that will be working until 2020, guiding EU environment policy. The 7th EAP is exposed at Decision nº 1386/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on a General Union Environment Action Programme to 2020 ‘Living well, within the limits of our planet’.Regarding future trends the 7th EAP indicates a fully implementation of EU’s waste legislation.

The Flumaback project identified necessary actions for disposal of the fuel cell system with respect to EU laws. On this regards, the waste generated by the fuel cell at the end of its life has to fit actual EU legislations: i.e. Directive 2008/98/EC on waste; Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste; Directive 2006/66/EC on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators; Directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment.

Regarding future trends on EU laws, the so-called “Circular economy”, a new economic model related with products defined by European Commission had been identified. Formally called “Towards a circular economy: A zero waste programme for Europe”, it is at level of proposal for directive, and wants to join all directives part of 7th AEP.

The EoL assessment continued with the identification of materials masses and types used in the system. Three-stage hazardous scale was set up to identify all hazardous materials and their presence in the components. The EoL assessment was done also using the LCA model from Task 6.2 where manufacturing phase is modelled in detail.

Three stage scale of hazardous materials were defined to delineate hazardousness of material and/or component or process.After that, hazardous stage scale for materials used in UPS system and polymers used in the FluMaBack UPS system have been identified. The analysis revealed that most of the materials used in UPS system have the level of 1 or 2 in three stage hazardous scale. Sulfuric acid, electronic equipment and platinum are considered as very hazardous materials that require special attention; additionally platinum is bonded in fuel cell. The analysis was performed also for each BoP Component.The outcome of this analysis is that the most present material is steel and the most hazardous one are Platinum and electronic equipment both at UPS fuel cell system level that at components level.

After evaluation of reverse logistics process and legislation, an EoL assessment scenario for main components of 3kW Flumaback fuel cell system has been prepared.In conclusion, after the disassembly process of the 3 kW UPS System, each material of the BoP component is checked and classified according to the possibility to reuse theme, re-manufacture them or landfill. Most of them are metal made, consequently, once re-use is rejected, materials have to be transformed into basic metals. These components are: cabinet, compressors, pumps, fans, DC/DC converter, control panel, wiring, cooling fan, pressure regulator, valves-fittings-piping, external heat exchanger. The final destination of materials must be determined to maximize, in a broad sense, the performance that can be obtained, or to minimize the social and environmental impact.

All related deliverable are public.

4. Market Preparation

In order to determine the business cases, the market and commercialisation options for the fuel cell systems developed in the Flumaback project, a market analysis and marketing strategy have been outlined. The historical numbers of shipments related to fuel cells, mostly stationary fuel cells, have been recovered. Stationary fuel cells have been divided into three different groups: backup fuel cells, auxiliary power units and combined heat and power. It has been shown that most of the shipments from 2009 until 2013 are related to the last group of stationary fuel cells, mainly motivated by the ENE-FARM project develop in Japan, representing 67% of the total market of this period. In a 2020 horizon, different scenarios have been developed to obtain the estimations of shipments for each type of fuel cell. In this context, an optimistic scenario throws a value of 25 000,00 shipment for back-up units for telecom market all around the world which greatly clashes with the 21 000 units of CHP in Europe and the 150 000 of CHP in Japan or the 23 000 units that will be sell as auxiliary power units in the world for the same time horizon. Three potential business cases have been detected for Flumaback fuel cell systems. North Africa offers opportunities to provide back-up solutions as many outages take place in that area. Blackouts in the North Europe are an important problem for telecom operators, where the statistics show that single events of up to 200 hours per year are occurring. The third possible case has to deal with the possibility of using the system during catastrophic events. An important analysis has been done related to the different stakeholders interested in fuel cells market. In this sense, managers and shareholders are identified as the most important influencers, however; investors, buyers, suppliers and competitors keep close. Related to the FluMaBack characteristics and its price, an important evaluation has been done taking into account all the competitors nowadays present in the market. It is shown that for the complete fuel cell system, the 6 kW fuel cell is more price competitive than the 3 kW one. Different scenarios have been considered having as sensitivity variables the percentage of profit and the number of units produced as it will reduce the production cost. When developing a market analysis, one of the most important parts is about the substitute products that coexist. Related to the potential business cases, the costs associated in each case for different scenarios have been calculated. In the case of telecom back-up systems the fuel cell has been compared with batteries and diesel generators in five hourly scenarios; 8, 24, 72 and 200 hours of yearly operation. Extrapolating the results to a ten years amortisation scenario shows that the most economical technology is the diesel one, although no incentives for new technologies or additional taxes for the pollutant one have been considered. However, this does not represent big differences in cost; as for example in the 24 hours scenario, the total cost for the 3 kW system in ten years will be comparable to the diesel one.In the outage case in the North Africa, two scenarios have been calculated for each of the rated power of the fuel cell: 1 000 hours and 3 000 hours of operation. The comparison here has been done considering only a diesel generator, as the number of hours of operation is higher, it does not make sense to consider batteries. As the number of hours increase, the differences in cost in these cases are extremely high, being more competitive the diesel generator. Anyhow, coupling the FluMaBack system with a hydrogen generator, in order to completely eliminate logistics costs and hence decreasing the OPEX burden will improve FluMaBack system's TCO performance, highlighting the flexibility of fuel cells, which can be easily adapted to different operational contexts. In the catastrophic events case, renewable electricity generation (PV), electrolyser and fuel cell have defined an emergency box as the one compound. For a complete climatological scenarios have been included: Sahara Desert, Nicaragua, Indonesia and Alaska. Hard environmental conditions in Alaska are one of the worst possible scenario, focused on winter months where the number of sunny hours less than 2. On the other hand, very high isolation on Sahara and Nicaragua ensure a stable hydrogen production along the year.At least, after analysing all the cases it can be concluded that important opportunities will appear in the next years for fuel cells in the telecommunication base stations market. At the same time, in order to be competitive with its substitutes (mainly diesel), some incentives need to be included in new installations in the first years of commercialization.

All related deliverables are not public.

5. General promotion activities (Leader: UL)

Flumaback dissemination activities followed Flumaback Guidelines for Dissemination Strategy and has the objective to reach a broad audience and so making project results widely visible.

In this context, a monthly newsletter has been sent to interested subjects (e.g. researchers, universities, stakeholders). First newsletter has been sent on November 2013 whereas last newsletter has been sent on July 2015.Coordinator and project partners took part to some public events in which Flumaback project, objectives and activities have been presented such as: • Gwangju, Metropolitan City, Korea, June 2014 (event attended by FHa)o 20th World Hydrogen Energy Conference 2014, Project presentation on RCS study• Brussels, 10th and 11th November 2014 (event attended by the Coordinator)o Project Review Days, Poster session • Brussels, 11th and 12th November 2013 (event attended by the Coordinator)o Project Review Days, Poster session

Moreover, the Coordinator has been invited by FHC2JU to give an oral presentation about Flumaback project and its results at the next Project Review Days in Brussels next 17th and 18th November 2015. In addition to this, Flumaback project results will be presented in the same occasion at the Poster session.

All related deliverables are public.

6. Development and maintenance of internal and public Project portals (Leader: UL)

Within this task a dedicated website communication tools have been developed. Flumaback dedicated website is reachable through the web page www.flumaback.eu. The web site results updated containing up-to-date information about project progress and results, participation at relevant events, relevant information on involved partners and members. In addition to this, an intranet portal has been developed too representing the communication and material-exchanging tool used by all project partners. Indeed, on the intranet portal is possible to find all relevant information of the project such as:• Presentation regarding all Progress Meetings• Administrative documents (i.e. Grant Agreement, Annex I, Annex D)• Financial rules• Deliverables• Progress report • All relevant material useful/related to the project.All related deliverables are public

7. Dissemination of project results in scientific and professional journals and conferences (Leader: UL)